sapphistoire's reviews
215 reviews

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm always a bit sceptic of 'feminist' adaptations of stories (as all too often they turn out to not actually be that feminist), but I actually highly enjoyed this take on Snow White! The book is dual perspective following Lynet - the only daughter of the King and his dead wife who was formed out of snow to look like her dead mother - and Mina - Lynet's stepsister who was saved from death by her magician father who gave her a glass heart. I really enjoyed watching the two of them grow as characters throughout the book and I think the book reached a really satisfying conclusion. I, of course, loved that the book is sapphic, though it definitely took a bit of a back seat and was very insta-lovey. Overall, a fun and kinda easy fantasy read! 

Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It took me waaaay too long to finally pick up this book. The 'tagline' it has received of following a 27-year-old depressed atheist lesbian who accidentally gets a job in a Catholic church obviously led it to being on my radar for a while, and I even preordered it, but I think I truly appreciated it more now than I would have at the time of release. For one, I really saw my younger self in the main character and having read this book at the time would probably have caused me to spiral! But now I feel like I have a deeper level of understanding of her and how she is dealing (or rather, not) with her depression. A couple of things about the Catholic church confused me but thank God for my girlfriend having a Catholic upbringing (also sorry they had to go through that!) for explaining things to me!

Took half a star off because at times the writing and references felt a little outdated even for when it was written and even though a large chunk of the book was wrapped up by the end, I hate an open ending! Looking forward to reading the author's other books hopefully in February!

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really enjoyed this heartwarming low-sci-fi debut, particularly the found family, but it just felt like it was missing something! Full RTC?

She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark

dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

As a lover of Eliza Clark's novels and a hater of short story collections in general, no one was more surprised than me that I think I enjoyed this most out of everything that Eliza Clark has written. My favourite of the stories were The Shadow Over Little Chitaly - told in JustEat reviews, a story of a very off-putting and bizarre Chinese/Italian takeaway - Extinction Event - climate change and capitalism has decimated Earth but one scientist has found a potential miracle plant (?) from another planet that could save it - and The King - a cannibalistic member of a "master race" that is human but not in the face of doomsday and its aftermath. My least favourites were Build A Body Like Mine - a parasite story that read too closely to Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca - and Shake Well - nothing really seemed to happen in this story of a black market acne cream.

I really hope that Eliza Clark writes more genre fiction, particularly sci-fi, in the future because I LOVED those stories so much and I'm already dying for more books by her even though this only came out two months ago!

Down the Drain by Julia Fox

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I guess I'm not so Julia after all!

House of Crimson Hearts: A Steamy Vampire Fantasy Romance by Ruby Roe

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This was my first foray into both romantasy as a genre in general and Ruby Roe's work and...it's not looking good for me. This was the January pick for the sapphic book club I am in and it came with very high praise from multiple members who had read it before, so although it was not the book I voted for (justice for Afterlove!) I was pretty excited to read it. However, this turned out to be one of the worst books I have read in a long time. 

The book did not get off to a good start with the dedication which reads "To all the girls who wished Damon Salvatore had boobs… This one is for you". I wish I was joking but unfortunately this book was eyeroll after eyeroll. Following that is a map of the city that the book takes place in which is divided into separate sectors that I was really excited to learn more about, but that is about where the world building ended. In general this seems to be set in a kind of old-timey world where horses and carriages are the main (or only?) form of transport and guards use swords. But at the same time there are also jacuzzies, techno music and vibrating strapless strap-ons? The inconsistencies continue throughout - one of the main characters' sisters works in the church and multiple characters use (endlessly cringey) phrases including "Mother of Blood" and "For Blood's sake", but at other times "Oh my Gods". What is the truth? Furthermore, near the start of the book it is established that dhampirs used to thrive in the world but their power faded them into obscurity when vampires were created. Now, I had to look up what a dhampir was while reading because I had never heard of them, but as I found out, and as is also mentioned late on in the book, dhampirs are half vampire. So how can they exist before vampires exist? There was also no explanation as to why everyone gets horny while drinking blood. I would have thought drinking vampire blood would have made a human more powerful, rather than wanting to constantly have sex while they are on a deadline. 

The sheer lack of, or conflicting, world building was not the only terrible part of the book. One of the worst crimes was the God-awful writing. From the very first page you could tell the author was trying to write very purplish, would-be-big-on-2015-Tumblr prose by looking every second word up in a thesaurus. This alone I could excuse had other aspects of the book been good, but this was made worse by the fact that the word "claret" is used about a million times throughout the book as if it is the only synonym for "red" to exist. This is also joined by the exclusive use of the word "pussy" and the fact that Olivia (or should I say Olivia-fucking-Beaumont as for the first half of the book that is all she is referred to as) smells of oud and winter winds as if that is a genuine scent. The writing is also horrible in the sex scenes, rendering them increasingly eyeroll-worthy. Here is a list of some of the worst contenders: "...what I can only describe as blue balls, only that sounds like the patriarchy. So blue ovaries? Blue pussy? gross."; "Your clit is mine"; Spread your legs princess...I said spread. Your. Legs."; "Hard nub". There was also blood "pissing" out of people on several occasions and the fact that before around 70-80% of sex scenes was Red stabbing Octavia, it just kept on happening. 

On the topic of the sex scenes, though they kept happening over and over (though I appreciated the overall variety in what happened) it truly felt like there was no chemistry between the two main characters. Red in particular I felt was flip flopping back and forth with what she felt for Octavia. Throughout it felt like she hated her and (as mentioned above) was trying to stab her whenever possible. But during one of the sex scenes Octavia says that Red will be the death of her and Red just kinda shrugs it off saying something along the lines of nah, probably not, you're immortal. I thought Red's whole shtick was that she is a vampire hunter and not a handful of pages ago was she telling Octavia that soon all that would be left of her was a tattoo on Red's arm signalling that Red had killed her. There was also next to no emotional development between the characters, just sex, so it felt entirely unbelievable. 

Finally, and definitely the most egregious of sins committed in this book was the weird incesty feeling between characters, the lack of consent of third parties and something just downright gross. Octavia is a member of the ruling vampire family - emphasis on the word family - and has several "siblings", one of whom is Xavier who is described as very handsome and a bit of a player. Throughout Octavia refers to him as her brother or family, despite there being no blood relation, and once near the end tells Red to stop talking about him in a sexual manner because, blood or not, he is her brother. But multiple times throughout the book the two talk about each other having sex - discussions on the one summer they spent together having flings each and every day, Xavier telling Octavia she looks too good to not be having sex, Xavier telling Octavia about who he is going to be fucking that night, but to name a few - and near the end of the book Octavia watches Xavier having sex and after he tells her that he has also had sex with multiple other people before she saw. And she is not disgusted by seeing her brother having sex in front of her????? Are you kidding me??? There is also a scene where Octavia and Red are in a restaurant and Red is using a vibrator controlled by Octavia (she is also naked from the waist down) and while the waiter is taking their order Octavia is touching Red and Red is orgasming while the waiter is there. This was not hot in the slightest and I couldn't stop thinking about the lack of consent of the waiter throughout the whole scene. Finally, near the end a carriage they are in is attached and multiple people end up dying around the carriage, it is described that disembodied limbs are everywhere, and what happens? Octavia and Red have sex in the middle of it all, including spanking???? 

All of this combined, plus more I couldn't cohesively fit into this review made this one of the worst books I have read in a while, maybe even ever, and though I am slightly curious about where the plot is heading since literally nothing was wrapped up in this book, you could not pay me to continue on with this series. I wish I could have DNF-ed this book, and I'm nervous about the book club meeting! 

The Holiday Detour by Jane Kolven

2.0

I was so excited to pick The Holiday Detour up because Christmas is my favourite holiday and there's genderqueer and Jewish rep in here, but I was sorely disappointed. The book follows Dana, who, on Christmas Eve, is making the journey home to be with her grandmother. However, on her way there her car completely breaks down at the side of the road. Luckily, Charlie, a pig farmer, is there to help her out and offers her a ride home, but not without some diversions on the way. Admittedly, this book does have some merits - I liked the writing style a lot, it's definitely one of the better written romance books I've read, and the plot was interesting with some tropes I really like getting to see (fake dating and forced proximity). However, and this is a big however, the genderqueer character's gender was not dealt with sensitively at all in this book. Near the start of the book Charlie reveals their gender and Dana asks what their 'preferred' pronouns are (we're off to a good start...not). Charlie explains that they/them are the pronouns they are the most comfortable with while stating that she/her is also fine, but heavily implying otherwise, and even explaining that their unsupportive family continues to use she/her. Every other character in the book refers to Charlie with they/them pronouns except Dana who almost makes an effort to keep using she/her. Dana is the character whose POV we read the book from, and every description of Charlie is describing them as a woman and using feminine descriptors. It's only after Dana is called out by one of Charlie's friends and Charlie explains for a second time why they use they/them pronouns that Dana starts using them - and that's at 60% of the way through the book. I could deal with the insta-love romance because it's what I expected from the book, but this was just very disappointing and I didn't feel comfortable continuing to slog through it. 

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

4.0

As someone who rarely reads literary fiction this blew me away! I think I'm going to have to sit with my thoughts for a little while before being able to say anything coherent about this book other than I just could not stop reading it! Wow!! 

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole

4.0

Wow! This novella really caught me by surprise with how much I loved it! At first I was totally team Likotsi I did not like Fabiola at all but she slowly but surely grew on me and they're just both so cute together! I'm not normally a huge fan of second chance romances but this one was really great! 

Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain
Did not finish book.

Historical fiction is my joint third most read genre this year, and I’ve been particularly enjoying reading sapphic historical fiction, so when I saw this on Netgalley I was so excited to read it! Sadly, however, I just didn’t click with it and eventually DNFed it. The writing style is so reminiscent of a 19th century novel and often felt like I was being read to. The book is told in third person perspectives by some omnipresent narrator that switched between characters and places halfway through a chapter with no warning, and as such I just couldn’t connect to the story at all. Theresa also mentions in her review that the topic of miscarriage is handled very poorly and extremely insensitively and I completely agree. This really just wasn’t for me but if you are a real fan of historical fiction, maybe give it a shot!